cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/14762903
I am switching to Linux for the first time.
I heard Mint is really good but am not sure exactly which distro is best to use with Steam, as well as with newer games, as I primarily use my computer for gaming.
I generally play games like Final Fantasy XIV, Baldur’s Gate 3, Elden Ring, Elder Scrolls Online, and Total War: Warhammer 3.
Check out bazzite.gg - it’s a gaming spin of Fedora atomic and I’ve heard nothing but good things.
Otherwise there’s always Arch, or a derivative like EndeavourOS, that’s where I do my steam gaming. I have, on occasion, had issues with the Nvidia dkms driver and have needed to fork the nvidia-dkms package to track a particular driver release to skip a buggy version. Aside from that it’s been pretty smooth sailing. I use flatpak steam and ProtonPlus to pull Glorious Eggroll releases and everything I’ve played has worked well.
I’ve been using Nobara for gaming a while now, and it’s certainly a good choice from by experience. It’s a modified Fedora distro that’s designed for gaming.
Having used many distros (gaming-oriented and otherwise) Nobara would be my recommendation as well.
People saying “doesn’t matter” aren’t considering someone brand new to Linux would probably benefit from an out-of-the-box gaming ready distro (nvidia drivers ready, rgb drivers built in for gaming laptops, other gaming specific tweaks and fixes that they won’t know to install on say mint, a perfectly fine, general use distro). Not to say they wouldn’t be able to do all that on mint or Ubuntu or whatever with a bit of googling and effort, but they’re asking specifically for gaming.
Basically any that appeals. My biggest issue when I last used Linux with gaming was getting non steam games working through bottles or lutris, I had no idea how to set them up. Steam and proton played almost all of my library and worked well.
For purely steam gaming and browser work, I’ve really liked Pop! OS.
One thing I’d like to ask, as someone also starting to get fed up with windows. I know there’s proton and all but how does Linux work with VR? I have an index and nvidia card, and most of my VR is playing digital combat sim (DCS) but I do enjoy playing actual VR games from time to time. Is Linux still decent with those? Or do I have to stick with windows?
VR can work but is overall a buggy and less supported platform.
Ah man that’s a shame. I appreciate the heads up! I guess for now I’ll have to stick with windows unfortunately
I started using Pop_OS! because it looked like that it was focused to gaming. Then I changed to a rolling release distro to get the latest drivers and kernel (openSUSE Tumbleweed) and I’m pretty happy with it.
If you want pure gaming, one-click, steam deck like experience try Bazzite or you could also try Nobara.
I also recently switched to Linux on my main PC which is also my gaming PC. I tried Mint first but had too many hardware issues, mostly related to motherboard audio chip. Manjaro was next and it resolved my hardware issues but I didn’t like the package manager. Third was openSUSE Tumbleweed and that one stuck. Been using it for several weeks now and I love it.
I’m also using openSUSE for about a year now. I came frome Ubuntu -> Manjaro -> Fedora -> openSUSE I love it so far.
There is no wrong answer when it comes to sticking with popular and well loved distros.
Nobara works well.
The real question should be what desktop environment you want, Linux distros aren’t very different for an average user, it usually boils down to what’s included by default, what the package manager is, and what the desktop environment is. Someone said Nobara, which is a good choice. Use the KDE Plasma version tho
My desktop is amd 2700 cpu and nvidia 3080. I have been on Linux for at least a year now. Nobara was okay but borked itself from an update. Bazzite is my current os and it’s been rock solid for gaming. Just use protondb to make sure individual games work right.
Bazzite with steam deck option enabled